Semantic Segmentation Using Super Resolution Technique as Pre-Processing

Combining high-level and low-level visual tasks is a common technique in the field of computer vision. This work integrates the technique of image super resolution to semantic segmentation for document image binarization. It demonstrates that using image super-resolution as a preprocessing step can effectively enhance the results and performance of semantic segmentation

Inductorless CMOS Receiver Front-End Circuits for 10-Gb/s Optical Communications

[[abstract]]In this paper, a 10-Gb/s inductorless CMOS receiver front end is presented, including a transimpedance amplifier and a limiting amplifier. The transimpedance amplifier incorporates Regulated Cascode (RGC), active-inductor peaking, and intersecting active feedback circuits to achieve a transimpedance gain of 56 dB and a bandwidth of 8.27 GHz with a power dissipation of 35 mW. The limiting amplifier employs interleaving active feedback to achieve a differential voltage gain of 44.5 dB and a bandwidth of 10.3 GHz while consuming 226 mW. Both circuits are realized in 0.18- m CMOS technology with a 1.8-V supply.[[notice]]補正完畢[[incitationindex]]EI[[booktype]]紙

Three-stage binarization of color document images based on discrete wavelet transform and generative adversarial networks

The efficient segmentation of foreground text information from the background in degraded color document images is a hot research topic. Due to the imperfect preservation of ancient documents over a long period of time, various types of degradation, including staining, yellowing, and ink seepage, have seriously affected the results of image binarization. In this paper, a three-stage method is proposed for image enhancement and binarization of degraded color document images by using discrete wavelet transform (DWT) and generative adversarial network (GAN). In Stage-1, we use DWT and retain the LL subband images to achieve the image enhancement. In Stage-2, the original input image is split into four (Red, Green, Blue and Gray) single-channel images, each of which trains the independent adversarial networks. The trained adversarial network models are used to extract the color foreground information from the images. In Stage-3, in order to combine global and local features, the output image from Stage-2 and the original input image are used to train the independent adversarial networks for document binarization. The experimental results demonstrate that our proposed method outperforms many classical and state-of-the-art (SOTA) methods on the Document Image Binarization Contest (DIBCO) dataset. We release our implementation code at https://github.com/abcpp12383/ThreeStageBinarization

CCDWT-GAN: Generative Adversarial Networks Based on Color Channel Using Discrete Wavelet Transform for Document Image Binarization

To efficiently extract the textual information from color degraded document images is an important research topic. Long-term imperfect preservation of ancient documents has led to various types of degradation such as page staining, paper yellowing, and ink bleeding; these degradations badly impact the image processing for information extraction. In this paper, we present CCDWT-GAN, a generative adversarial network (GAN) that utilizes the discrete wavelet transform (DWT) on RGB (red, green, blue) channel splited images. The proposed method comprises three stages: image preprocessing, image enhancement, and image binarization. This work conducts comparative experiments in the image preprocessing stage to determine the optimal selection of DWT with normalization. Additionally, we perform an ablation study on the results of the image enhancement stage and the image binarization stage to validate their positive effect on the model performance. This work compares the performance of the proposed method with other state-of-the-art (SOTA) methods on DIBCO and H-DIBCO ((Handwritten) Document Image Binarization Competition) datasets. The experimental results demonstrate that CCDWT-GAN achieves a top two performance on multiple benchmark datasets, and outperforms other SOTA methods

High-yield antibody production using targeted integration and engineering CHO host

To identify the high expression sites in the CHO cells, we employed NGS to analyze the integration sites of a high producing cell line (titer \u3e 3g/L). The pair-end reads with one read mapped to the vector and the other read mapped to the CHO reference genome are extracted to identify the integration sites. To test the expression activity of the integration sites, we employed CRISPR/Cas9 to specifically integrate the antibody gene into CHO genome for expression. Our data showed 4 integration sites are in the high producing cell line. Among the 4 integration site, one integration site was tested by CRISPR/Cas9 for target integration of antibody gene for expression. The target integrated cell pool present higher expression level (130 mg/L/copy) and less copy number when compared other integration sites. Through single-copy integration method, we can also achieve 60-150 mg/L/copy in a batch culture. About 80% of the single-copy cell clones were stable at generation 60. We have also applied the CHO-specific microarray transcriptomics technology to identify genes that contribute to high productivity. Transfection of our proprietary dual promoter vector J 1.0 resulting in 1.65 to 2.4 fold increase in the expression in engineered CHO DXB11 host. Through fed-batch process development, 3 – 5 g/L mAb productivity can be achieved through targeted integration and engineered CHO host

Development of high-producing CHO cell lines through target-designed strategy

Productivity and stability are critical for the protein drug producing cell lines for manufacturing. Given that the integration sites of gene of interest (GOI) could contribute remarkable effect on the productivity and stability of GOI expression, we intended to develop a targeting-designed approach to generate the high-producing cell lines in a time-saving and less labor-intensive method through targeting the active and stable regions. To identify the active and stable regions located in CHO genome, two approaches were applied in our experiments. Firstly, the integration sites of GOI in cell clones developed by random integration were identified by whole genome sequencing. Secondly, we developed transposon-mediated low copy integration to discover novel active region located in CHO genome. It is interesting that the productivity per integrated GOI in cell clones developed by transposon system was more than two times to that in cell clones developed by random integration (random integration: 20-40 mg/L/copy; transposon-mediated integration: 40-140mg/L/copy). In addition, about 80% of cell clones developed by transposon system maintained the stability of antibody titer after culturing for 60 generations. These results implied that the potential active and stable integration region in the cell clones developed by transposon system. The identified integration regions could be applied for target integration. In order to verify the expression activity and stability of the integration sites, we employed CRISPR/Cas9 to specifically integrate the antibody gene into CHO genome for expression. Our data showed the cell pool generated by knock-in of expression vector into the IS1 integration site present higher expression titer than cell pools generated by integration into other sites or random integration. We further cultured the single cell clones derived from this cell pool by Clonepix and limiting dilution. These single cell clones have high expression titer ranging from 254 to 804 mg/L in batch culture of after 6 Days. A single cell clone(376 mg/L in batch culture) can reached 2 g/L in fed-batch culture. The stability analysis showed this clone maintain stable expression of GOI after 60 generation. Here, we demonstrated the generation of stable cell line with high protein expression by CRISPR/Cas9 mediated target integration. This approach will cost less time and labor than traditional method

Serum repressing efflux pump CDR1 in Candida albicans

BACKGROUND: In the past decades, the prevalence of candidemia has increased significantly and drug resistance has also become a pressing problem. Overexpression of CDR1, an efflux pump, has been proposed as a major mechanism contributing to the drug resistance in Candida albicans. It has been demonstrated that biological fluids such as human serum can have profound effects on antifungal pharmacodynamics. The aim of this study is to understand the effects of serum in drug susceptibility via monitoring the activity of CDR1 promoter of C. albicans. RESULTS: The wild-type C. albicans cells (SC5314) but not the cdr1/cdr1 mutant cells became more susceptible to the antifungal drug when the medium contained serum. To understand the regulation of CDR1 in the presence of serum, we have constructed CDR1 promoter-Renilla luciferase (CDR1p-RLUC) reporter to monitor the activity of the CDR1 promoter in C. albicans. As expected, the expression of CDR1p-RLUC was induced by miconazole. Surprisingly, it was repressed by serum. Consistently, the level of CDR1 mRNA was also reduced in the presence of serum but not N-acetyl-D-glucosamine, a known inducer for germ tube formation. CONCLUSION: Our finding that the expression of CDR1 is repressed by serum raises the question as to how does CDR1 contribute to the drug resistance in C. albicans causing candidemia. This also suggests that it is important to re-assess the prediction of in vivo therapeutic outcome of candidemia based on the results of standard in vitro antifungal susceptibility testing, conducted in the absence of serum

A retrospective analysis of 20-year data of the surgical management of ulcerative colitis patients in Taiwan: a study of Taiwan Society of Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Background/AimsWith the recent progress in medical treatment, surgery still plays a necessary and important role in treating ulcerative colitis (UC) patients. In this study, we analyzed the surgical results and outcomes of UC in Taiwan in the recent 20 years, via a multi-center study through the collaboration of Taiwan Society of IBD.MethodsA retrospective analysis of surgery data of UC patients from January 1, 1995, through December 31, 2014, in 6 Taiwan major medical centers was conducted. The patients' demographic data, indications for surgery, and outcome details were recorded and analyzed.ResultsThe data of 87 UC patients who received surgical treatment were recorded. The median post-operative follow-up duration was 51.1 months and ranged from 0.4 to 300 months. The mean age at UC diagnosis was 45.3±16.0 years and that at operation was 48.5±15.2 years. The 3 leading indications for surgical intervention were uncontrolled bleeding (16.1%), perforation (13.8%), and intractability (12.6%). In total, 27.6% of surgeries were performed in an emergency setting. Total or subtotal colectomy with rectal preservation (41.4%) was the most common operation. There were 6 mortalities, all due to sepsis. Emergency operation and low pre-operative albumin level were significantly associated with poor survival (P=0.013 and 0.034, respectively).ConclusionsIn the past 20 years, there was no significant change in the indications for surgery in UC patients. Emergency surgeries and low pre-operative albumin level were associated with poor survival. Therefore, an optimal timing of elective surgery for people with poorly controlled UC is paramount